Canada Bound

Tomorrow marks the first day of a 16 day mission trip to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This will be my third trip to Calgary and I'm greatly looking forward to it. This picture shows my apparel for most of the weeks while I'm gone. The shirt on the left is our Mt. View team shirt that will probably be worn when we play tourist on Saturdays. The shirt on the right is our shirt used at all ministry sites. We will wear this shirt EVERY day for 8 hours at least. Pray for open washing machines a couple of nights so we can wear clean shirts a few days at least. It has the website of the church we work with southwindschurch.ca. We are free advertising for the church. It's pretty special to me though because I've been with this church plant since it's prayer stages two summers ago. I look forward to worshipping there next Sunday. The hat in the middle is for t-ball camp. It's a much better hat than our "old man/trucker" hats from last year. At least this one will protect my scalp from sunburn.

So I ask that you pray for our travels as we've had bumps in the road each trip. We arrive in Canada with no complications but our trip home has been tainted with complications each year. I also ask that you pray for endurance. It's going to be two VERY busy weeks full of ministry and relationship building. Week one involves t-ball and a kids camp (VBS type of thing). Week two involves basketball camp and yard work. I'm going to need rest whenever I can find it. OK, I've got to go finish packing. I'll blog if I can while I'm gone or blog when I get back. No worries, eh?!

Summer Break Routine

My summer break routine has finally started this week. It evolves into practically the same thing each day that I am home during the summer. I had two summers to perfect it when I was stuck at home job searching. It's amazing how relaxing it can become. I've even been known to suck a few people into my routine where they can relax with it too.

I usually wake up at a pretty early hour. If I awake before 8, I stay in bed and read until sometime after 8. Then I proceed to watch Good Morning America or SportsCenter. Depending on what realm of world news I feel the need to catch up on. It's mostly baseball scores and whiny football players who want more money lately so GMA usually wins out.

This morning I rediscovered my favorite appliance - my smoothie maker. I am becoming well known among my circle of friends for making good smoothies. My smoothie partner has moved half way across the country so I had to down the whole thing today. I think I got a full days vitamin requirement in this morning's concoction. Then after breakfast I either read some more or develop my finger dexterity on my GameCube. I'm in the middle of an NBA basketball season so I've got to play some each day so the season doesn't extend into the school year. I created some players named for "fictional" people who I need to develop into good players too.

At 10:00 AM drama is turned on. I get lost in the world of ER for two hours. It's still the early seasons, but it is before I started watching religiously with my roomie in college and after the seasons I have on DVD. Lunch happens around 12 and I watch Full House or Hope and Faith - depending on how long I have this free preview of the WE channel. I then decide its time to shower and accomplish something for the day.

Afternoons are filled with mission trip preparations, Bible study catch ups, counseling DVD classes or naps, depending on the energy level. I might go to a movie one day this week to fill my afternoon. I'll need to attack my jungle I call a lawn of weeds at some point later in the week. It'll be three weeks until it gets mowed again so I'm trying to put it off. If I need to go out, then I do. There is no pressure to be anywhere this week. I have volleyball open gyms on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Church is having VBS this week, which I again avoided this year. It's a pretty clear schedule that is totally up to me. I have been staying up pretty late but I've always been a night owl anyways. So there's my routine. What do you do with your summer?

Beach Bound Too!

If you read my blog, then you probably read Melissa's too. We are leaving for the beach somewhat early tomorrow morning. We'll be back with sunburns and fun stories to tell I'm sure. We're looking to our first big "adult" vacation/adventures. We've been discussing all the fun things we're going to do while in Cocoa Beach...bar hopping, finding me a man, tattoos, dying our hair some funky color, and whatever Rena adds to our list. Dad recommended that I write SINGLE or AVAILABLE on my back in sunscreen and then walk down the beach. Man, it's good to be loved. I'll post this week if I get the chance but otherwise I'll see you on the flip side!

Mef - we'd LOVE to hear from you sometime this week. Any time is good with me!

Schools Out!

Today I completed my first year at Lincolnton Middle School. The last day of school is different every year based on the age I'm teaching, if I'm coming back to this school, and hormonal level of my students. It was an emotional day for most of the girls. Some of them were crying in the first ten minutes of school and others waited until the end of the day to cry. Several of them expressed their fear of high school. Several of them thanked me for helping them get to high school. My white board is covered with good-byes and memories. I'm going to have to take a picture of it before I erase it all. My yearbook is filled with well wishes and thanks for being me. I love writing in student's yearbooks too. I love to put in ink my best wishes and prayers for their futures. Hopefully some day down the road they'll read back through it and realize how much I believe in them. My room is empty of everything moveable except my desk and my computer table. Man, is my floor dirty! I've cleaned most of my room as we watched movies this week.

I'm amazed at the amount of paperwork that has to be done to finish a student's middle school career. Today was the day of gathering information for the summer school kids. Monday brings the fun of getting cumulative folders ready for high school. Hopefully, Tuesday will be a day of cleaning and organizing my room. I'm looking forward to sorting cumulative folders and "tracking" my kids' progress thus far in their educational careers.

Don't get me wrong - I love my kids dearly. Some of them will hold a special place in my heart for years to come, but for the most part I'm glad the year is over. My body is physically shutting down. I've been waiting since 5:30 for a decent, dark hour to go to bed. I think I can turn-in soon. Now that school's out, I'll hopefully be able to post more often!